HostGator VPS Review (2018)

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By: Alexandra Leslie
Updated: April 20, 2018

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So, you’ve had this idea. It’s creative, it’s something you’re passionate about, and it’s a concept your colleagues have said holds potential to be a real business. Thousands of dollars and countless sleepless nights later, you’ve done it. You signed up with a shared web host, installed WordPress, generated content, and followed a strategic marketing and first-year growth plan. Your online business now sees upward of 50,000 customers each month, and you’re the beneficiary of all the revenue that traffic brings in. Congrats! This is an exciting time.

As is the case with anything else, website maturity comes with greater responsibilities. All those visitors have high expectations for your site’s functionality and availability, and you can’t afford to disappoint (assuming you want to continue enjoying that transaction-centered traffic).

When it’s time to migrate from shared hosting to a VPS, HostGator is excellent for reliable server hosting.

HostGator VPS Hosting Review: 4.5 Overall Rating

HostGator is known for its reliability as a company that confidently ushers website owners through the ranks of shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting options as their businesses and websites grow. In the past, we’ve praised the hosting provider for providing top-of-the-line customer care throughout the site’s hosting lifecycle.

VPSRATING

HostGator: Our Expert's Review

Setup time: 7 minutes

Ryan Frankel (HostingAdvice.com):
HostGator has built a great reputation in the industry for their shared hosting options. Their VPS solutions, with optional cPanel support, provide a nice and easy introduction to those that are new to VPS hosting and know their needs require more than a... Go to full review »

HostGator Features: 4.6 Rating

You can expect all the VPS essentials to be covered in HostGator plans — custom configurations; hosting for unlimited domains, subdomains, and email accounts; and dedicated resources without the cost of a dedicated server. HostGator VPS packages are not teeming with data transfer and storage resources, but you can trust you won’t pay for more than you need.

HostGator Pricing: 4.3 Rating

With virtual server plans starting at $19.98 a month, HostGator VPS pricing is competitive, and you can easily upgrade as your computing and storage demands scale. Customers get the choice of two or four cores with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of RAM and two IP addresses.

The bandwidth and storage allowances are somewhat modest compared with competitor plans, but most professional projects and tech startups will probably find HostGator VPS services to be cost-effective, especially if you’re migrating from shared server hosting.

HostGator VPS Performance: 4.5 Rating

HostGator server performance remains competitive with its sister hosts Bluehost, iPage, and FatCow. Its Utah- and Texas-based datacenter facilities are lined with Intel servers, feature a fully redundant network with HVAC units, and are equipped with backup generators to ensure interruption-free performance for your site(s).

HostGator would get more points in this category if the company were to add solid-state drives (SSDs), instant provisioning, application-specific caching, performance monitoring or speed boost optimizations. These features have become standard among speed-savvy hosting providers (a great example being the current trend toward SSD hosting), and HostGator is a little behind by not at least offering them as an upsell option.

HostGator VPS Reliability: 5.0 Rating

HostGator covers the reliability bases with state-of-the-art hardware, an attentive support team, and weekly off-site data backups, giving customers the utmost confidence in HostGator services. Whether you’re coming from another host or upgrading from one of HostGator’s shared hosting plans, the team offers free migration assistance, and the award-winning support staff is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The 99.9% uptime guarantee is pretty standard across the industry, although up/downtime rates and uptime guarantees should not be treated as the sole measure of a host’s reliability. Nevertheless, you can expect to benefit from a redundant network with no single point of failure. HostGator partners with multiple bandwidth providers and equips its datacenters with backup power generators and Intel processors for maximum performance and protection for your precious server data.

How Do HostGator’s Virtual Servers Compare with Those of Competitors?

HostGator is among the top-ranked VPS and cloud hosting providers in the world. Having tested the VPS plans of the best hosts, we can attest to its reputation for reliability. However, the host could do more in the way of advanced storage, performance, and security features. Compared with competitors, HostGator provides great entry-level VPS options, but advanced users will get more bang for their buck with the #1 VPS host:

Get 30% Off Your First Month of VPS Hosting with HostGator

Your website and business maturing to VPS needs is an exciting milestone in your company timeline. It’s an accomplishment to be proud of but one that can be daunting to navigate. For that reason, we encourage hosting customers to partner with a web host that’s known for easing the burden of such transitions.

HostGator makes the VPS upgrade a painless one by offering free migration assistance for cPanel users — and our visitors enjoy 30% off the first month of HostGator VPS hosting. It couldn’t be easier to get started, and this is really just the beginning for you and your business idea you’ve poured so much into. The scaling potential is infinite with server hosts like HostGator. Best of luck to you and your (hopefully) million-dollar idea(s)!

Questions or Comments? Ask Alexandra!

Ask a question and Alexandra will respond to you. We strive to provide the best advice on the net and we are here to help you in any way we can.

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About the Author

Alexandra Leslie

Alexandra Leslie’s interest in website administration was sparked in her teens, priming her for a fast-paced career in managing, building, and contributing to online brands, including HostingAdvice, Forbes, and the blogs of prominent hosting providers. She brings to the table firsthand experience in reviewing web hosts, perfecting website design, optimizing content, and walking site owners through the steps that add up to a successful online presence. Today, she combines her extensive writing experience with technical understanding to unpack some of the most complex topics that daunt novice website owners, as well as the subjects that excite veteran technologists within the HostingAdvice readership.

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